“Although the university never owned enslaved people or traded in the goods they produced, it is now clear we received significant financial support from people whose wealth came from slavery.

“The university deeply regrets this association with historical slavery which clashes with our proud history of support for the abolition of both the slave trade and slavery itself.”

He highlighted the university’s historic anti-slavery activity which included petitioning Parliament to abolish slavery, awarding an honorary degree to the emancipationist, William Wilberforce, and educating former slave James McCune Smith, who became the first ever African American to receive a medical degree.